Fiscal cliff

To the Editor:

When this $40 billion-a-month mortgage program was first announced by the Fed, the market rallied. The emotion of the moment took over. Then, the analysis of the short-term/long-term implications started and the folks who do this for a living know the long-term implications. Equate this to a heroin addict who receives that initial fix ($40 billion this month) and itfeels so good, but does not realize that this heroin fix eventually will kill him.

The smart money knows that we just have accelerated our march to the fiscal cliff (phrase used by the IMF, Bill Clinton and others) by now adding $480 billion to our annual debt. This is on top of the annual $1 trillion the Congressional Budget Office projected some time ago through 2016. Again, hold onto your wallets.

If this continues (this program is open-ended) for too long, it will not end well. Remember, our debt already is at $16 trillion, and we are adding $3.5 billion a day.

This program was a Hail Mary pass by Ben Bernanke. The Fed has run out of good options. Remember, this is not about the 1 percent of Americans. This is not about the 99 percent of Americans. This is about the 100 percent of Americans.